Poor Rita! First she gets blaimed by the Master Himself (Johan Cruyff) for the Dutch soccer team not getting past the round of 16 in Germany, now she will be blamed for the government's resignation... I don't know which one is the bigger burden to carry...;P
I realized today how glad I am that I live on the other side of Europe and only get the watered down version of the whole thing through the internet.
I'd trade your political scandal of the scandal that is the US govt any day. Glad I live in Belgium.
I am a few months away from citizenship here myself and am contemplating leaving. It is depressing living in a culture that is clearly on a downward spiral. Between the Socialist luddites, government sanctioned and protected monopolies, anti-business climate and still unrestricted immigration (the current debate does not even come close to addressing the real problems) I give The Netherlands less than 30 years before it resembles Detroit and Michigan.
I should say unrestricted UNSKILLED immigration. It is virtually impossible to come here as a professional. Marriage or asylum is the only way to get your "green card". No wonder immigrants are a burden. Talent who might want to apply for jobs here are prohibited so as not to create competition for Dutch Sociology majors in getting that first engineering job.
Amsterdamsky -
Have you read Dean Baker?
Shielding professionals (doctors, laywers etc.) from international competition is done everywhere. He wrote a book about the situation in the US, in which he estimates the costs for American consumers at "approximately $80 billion a year. This is 10 times as large as standard estimates of the gains from NAFTA".
And that is just if competition between European and American doctors were allowed.
And about asylum: the numbers are WAY down since the 1990s. The Balkan wars are over, and all the Irakis (and Afghans and Somalis) with the werewithal to flee to the West have already done so. They're fleeing to Jordan and Iran instead. The asylum laws were toughened up years ago.
Unskilled workers/housewifes marrying their way into the Netherlands, yes, that's a problem. But even there it seems that the most excessive years are behind us. Most young Dutch Moroccans and Turks nowadays want to marry other 2nd generation Dutch Moroccans and Turks. It might nog be necessary to adopt the Danish approach.
Most Western countries have large numbers of (illegal) unskilled immigrants. All of them protect their professional classes. The Netherlands is no exception. I wonder where you would like to go?
Still beats having Al Gore as President. I will study very hard for my citizenship exam if Hillary Clintoon ever weasels (or screws) her way into the Oval Office. As bad as things are here now in Holland it could easily be much worse considering how mainy aging brainless Socialists you have in your population that give not a shit about the next generation as long as they will be receiving their pensions on time and can retire at 54.
Sorry Jasper, I missed that. I am a skilled immigrant from the US and I can assure you this way of entering your country is closed for virtually everyone. You are only getting immigration through marriage or the rare internal corporate transfer. Opening up services and labor will certainly improve the standard of living for all save the unemployable. Even if you raised taxes more to pay for your trash we would all still be better off. My next destination would probably be India if things go poorly in Holland. There will be some very nice communities popping up there in the next 20 years. I would rather pay no taxes and have no services than high taxes and no services.
Amsterdamsky- some questions:
What would Al Gore have done worse than George W. Bush? I would honestly like to know.
What's wrong with retiring at 54? Please note that Dutch "Social Security" (AOW) kicks in at 65 and only at a subsistence level (70% of minimum wage or something like that). Almost all the other pension money is prefunded. The pensioners paid for it themselves, and retiring early in exchange for a lower annual pension is their free choice. It's none of our business.
As for skilled immigrants, the Netherlands are not closed for virtually anyone. We are in free competition with people from the old EU countries, and pretty soon the new members as well. That's 430 million foreigners who can apply their skills over here without so much as a visum. If anything, the Dutch labor market is more open to immigrants than the US'.
And you get one thing backward. The unemployable are the ones that benefit the most from competition between skilled workers. Hiring a lawyer or going to a doctor will become cheaper.
And if you really think you get no services for the taxes you pay, you probably should go to India.
Commenting by HaloScan
